Home Cell Group Explosion
Written by Joel Comisky
CELL CHURCH BASICS: DEFINING THE “CELL CHURCH"
So what exactly is a cell church? In everyday terminology, it's simply a church that has placed
evangelistic small groups at the core of its ministry. Cell ministry is not "another program"; it's
the very heart of the church. As Lawrence Khong, pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church in
Singapore, says:
There is a vast difference between a church with cells and a cell church. We don't do
anything else except the cell. All the things the church must do: - training, equipping,
discipleship, evangelism, prayer, worship - are done through the cell. Our Sunday service
is just the corporate celebration.
Cells are open, evangelism-focused small groups that are entwined into the life of the church.
They meet weekly to build up each other as members of the Body of Christ, and to spread the
gospel to those who don't know Jesus. The ultimate goal of each cell is to multiply itself as the
group grows through evangelism and then conversions. This is how new members are added to the
church and to the kingdom of God. Members of cell groups also are encouraged to attend the
celebration service of the entire church, where cells come together for worship. This
foundational link between a church community and its small groups is one of the significant
differences between cell churches and house churches. Ralph Neighbour Jr. makes a helpful
clarification:
There is a distinct difference between the house church and the cell group movements.
House Churches tend to collect a community of 15-25 people who meet together on a
weekly basis. Usually, each House Church stands alone. While they may be in touch with
nearby House Churches, they usually do not recognize any further structure beyond
themselves.
Again, not all small groups are cell groups. Experts estimate that in the U.S. alone, 80 million
adults belong to a small group. One out of six of those are new members of a small group, which
shows that small groups are alive and growing. Lyle Schaller, after listing 20 innovations in the
modern U.S. church scene, notes:"
Perhaps most important of all, [is] the decision by tens of millions of teenagers and adults
to place a high personal priority on weekly participation in serious, in-depth, lay-led, and
continuing Bible study and prayer groups.
Much of the small-group movement in the United States, however, promotes personal health at
the expense of evangelistic outreach. There is no organized system for multiplication of these
groups." Mack goes on to say, “... in many churches small groups are not open to newcomers and
are not set up to reproduce themselves."
Such a mind-set is unthinkable in a cell church. Evangelism that leads to cell multiplication fuels
the rest of the church. Dale Galloway, founder of New Hope Community Church in Portland,
Oregon, declares, "Closed groups are restricted and dead-end, and they do not fulfil the Great
Commission." Carl E George is even more emphatic:
Show me a nurturing group not regularly open to new life, and I will guarantee that it's
dying. If cells are units of redemption, then no one can button up the lifeboats and hang
out a sign, 'You can't come in here.' The notion of group members shutting themselves
off in order to accomplish discipleship is a scourge that will destroy any church's
missionary mandate.
SETTING THE GOAL: MULTIPLICATION
The heart of cell-based ministry is evangelism, and the eight most prominent cell churches in the
world position their cell ministry primarily to evangelize lost men and women. These churches
accept Jesus' Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) as their marching order. They advance into
the enemy's camp of non-Christians and even track their "progress." Church leaders set
quantifiable goals for their cell ministry, and some even promote "healthy competition" among
cell leadership. Passion for the lost is the motivation that keeps everything in perspective. Far
more effective than "one-on-one" evangelism, the cells in these churches function like nets that
spread out over entire cities. Buses haul the catch to the celebration service for worship.
Mikell Neuman, professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, confirms these findings
with his recent research. He makes these observations about small group characteristics that
transcend culture:
"While we suspected evangelism was a key to home group ministries, we were surprised at
the force of its importance. The churches in this study do not divide the ministry into
the lost and the saved with special home groups for each. In any given group one might
find a mix of non-Christians, new Christians, and more mature Christians. People come to
know Christ in the home group with their friends or family who are already Christians,
and in the same group they grow in maturity. "
As. founding pastor of DOVE Christian Fellowship in Pennsylvania, Larry Kreider understands the
dynamics of cell ministry so well that his church, which he started from scratch, now plants
daughter churches worldwide. Kreider believes that, "The main purpose for every cell group
must be to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Otherwise, the cell becomes a social club
without any power." Ralph Neighbour Jr. writes in Where Do We Go From Here? "This common
vision - reaching the lost and equipping believers for that task - provides the healthy continuity
between all the cell groups."
Clearly, evangelism that results in the proliferation of cell groups is the most distinguishing
feature of the cell church worldwide. My case study reveals that more than 60 percent of the
700 cell leaders surveyed had multiplied their group at least once, and that it took about nine
months to do so. These leaders know that evangelism must lead to multiplication, and that smallgroup evangelism is never an end in itself. Furthermore, church growth is the ultimate fruit of
cell multiplication. Not all cell churches have the same level of success in pulling in the net. But
the goal and vision are the same.
SUMMARY OF SURVEY FINDINGS
Factors that don't affect multiplication:
The leader's gender, social class, age, marital (civil) status, or education.
The leader's personality type. Both introverted and extroverted leaders multiply their cells.
The leader's spiritual gifting. Those with the gift of teaching, pastoring, mercy, leadership,
and evangelism equally multiply their cell group. This is surprising because many, including David
Yonggi Cho, teach that only leaders with the gift of evangelism are able to multiply cell groups.
Factors that do affect multiplication:
The Cell leaders devotional life.
Those who spend 90 minutes or more in devotions per day multiply their groups twice as much as
those who spend less than 30 minutes.
The cell leader's intercession for the cell members.
Those who pray daily for cell members are most likely to multiply groups.
The leader spending time with God to prepare for a cell meeting.
Spending time with God preparing the heart for a cell meeting is more important than preparing
the lesson.
The Leader setting goals
The leader who fails to set goals that the members remember has about a 50 percent chance of
multiplying his or her cell. Setting goals increases that chance to 75 percent.
Knowing your cell multiplication date.
Cell leaders who set specific goals for giving birth consistently multiply their groups more often
than goal-less leaders.
Training.
Cell leaders who feel better trained multiply their cells more rapidly. However, training is not as
important as the leader's prayer lift and goal orientation.
How often the cell leader contacts new people.
Leaders who con tact five to seven new people per month have an 80% chance of multiplying the
cell group. When the leader visits only 1 to 3 people per month, the chances drop to 60%.
Leaders who visit eight or more new people each month multiply their groups twice as much as
those who visit one or two.
Exhortation in cell groups to invite friends.
Cell leaders who weekly encourage members to invite visitors double their capacity to multiply
their groups -as opposed to those leaders who do so only occasionally or not at all.
Number of visitors to the cell.
There is a direct relationship between the number of visitors In reply to the group and the
number of times a leader multiplies the group.
Outside meetings.
Those cells that have six or more social meetings per month multiply twice as much as those who
have only one, or none.
Raising up new leaders
Those leaders who gather a team double their capacity to multiply the cell.
Level of pastoral care.
Regular visitation by the leader to the cell members helps consolidate the group.
Prayer for Group Members:
When comparing prayer, contacting, and social meetings, it was discovered that prayer for group
members is the leader's most important work to unify and strengthen the group in preparation
for multiplication. Building a team is a close second.
Preparation of the leader:
When analyzing devotions, goals, training and preparation, the devotions and goals were found to
be more important. Effective cell leadership is more of a Spirit-led adventure than a Biblestudy technique.
Evangelistic thrust of the group:
When analyzing visiting new people, exhortation, and visitors in the group, visitation and
exhortation are equally important in the multiplication process. The flow of visitors is secondary.
SUMMARY OF KEY FACTORS ESSENTIAL FOR CELL MULTIPLICATION
Factors essential to multiplying groups are leadership devotions, leadership outreach, group
outreach, and building a team.
Praying for team members and setting goals are primary in the first-time multiplication of a
cell group.
Leadership training and social meetings are necessary for continuous multiplication.